BLUE AFTERNOON

"Blue Afternoon" is the 4th full-length studio album by US experimental folk rock artist Tim Buckley. The album was released through the Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa owned Straight Records label in November 1969 (his debut on that label). "Blue Afternoon" was recorded during a very busy four week period in 1969, where the very different sounding 5th full-length studio album "Lorca (1970)" and some of the material that ended up on the 6th full-length studio album "Starsailor (1970)", were also recorded. Most of the material were already written during the "Happy Sad (1969)" sessions earlier in the year though.

"Blue Afternoon" is more or less a sibling album to "Happy Sad (1969)" and again explore the border area between folk rock and loose jamming experimentation (with a touch of avant garde) and mellow jazz. Compared to "Happy Sad (1969)" I think "Blue Afternoon" is a more straight folk rock album than it´s predecessor though.

Tim Buckley´s unique and emotional vocals are the center of attention as always and the instrumentation is predominantly acoustic as usual too, which provides the album with a pleasant, warm and organic sound. The real strength in the music, in addition to the emotional vocal delivery, are the strong vocal melodies. But the instrumental performances are also skillfully and tastefully delivered. The most experimental track on the album is the closing track "Train", which stands out quite a bit from the rest of the material. Other highlights on the album are the dark and mellow "Chase the Blues Away", "River" and "Cafe".

The sound production is warm and organic. It´s the kind of production where it feels like you´re standing in the same room as the musicians, while they are recording. "Blue Afternoon" is overall a great quality album release by Tim Buckley, full of warmth, heartfelt longing, and melancholy. It´s a perfect sibling album to "Happy Sad (1969)" and if you like one, you´re pretty much bound to enjoy the other as well. As the case was with "Happy Sad (1969)", "Blue Afternoon" bridges the gap between the mainstream oriented early relases in Tim Buckley´s discography and the more experimental/avant garde oriented releases "Lorca (1970)" and "Starsailor (1970)". A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.